Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now available for download. Similar to Service Pack 2 (SP2), Service Pack 3 (SP3) is provided free of cost to the existing SQL Server 2008 users.

“While keeping product changes contained, we have made significant investments to ease deployment and management of Service Packs,” says Microsoft.

Most significant changes to Microsoft SQL server are:

• Enhanced upgrade experience from previous versions of SQL Server to SQL Server 2008 SP3. In addition, we have increased the performance & reliability of the setup experience.
• In SQL Server Integration Services logs will now show the total number of rows sent in Data Flows.
• Enhanced warning messages when creating the maintenance plan if the Shrink Database option is enabled.
• Resolving database issue with transparent data encryption enabled and making it available even if certificate is dropped.
• Optimized query outcomes when indexed Spatial Data Type column is referenced by DTA (Database Tuning Advisor).
• Superior user experience with Sequence Functions (e.g Row_Numbers()) in a Parallel execution plan.

For a detailed list of new features and improvements that are included in SQL Server 2008 SP3, review the Release Notes.

System requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows 7; Windows8, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and R2;Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack2;Windows XP Service Pack 3
• 1GHz or faster processor
• Minimum of 512 MB of RAM (1 GB or more recommended)
• 675 MB of available hard disk space

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SQL Server 2008 SP3
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